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MESP | Managing the Environmental Sustainability of Ports for a durable development. The intensification of maritime traffic, both in terms of goods and passengers, needs to be accompanied by an environmentally sustainable management of port areas so to reduce harmful consequences for local populations. MESP addresses the reduction of water, air and noise pollution deriving from port activities through the implementation of a multidisciplinary approach, which encompasses technological, regulatory and administrative solutions. The reinforcement of cooperation between port authorities, scientific...

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The port activity, especially when providing for the handling of bulk goods, produces unavoidable impacts on air quality, both within the site that port in areas close to this, due to the dispersion of powders, especially fine particles, fumes or gases. Strict monitoring programs about air conditions are already being implemented, in order to identify possible violations of the limits of the law relating to concentrations of fine particles, whose adverse health effects have been proven. Mitigation actions like humidification of powdery bulk goods, cover with cloth dust for goods deposited, green barriers and buffer zones between port areas and neighborhoods back port have to be improved.

Seawater supports a multitude of functioning coastal ecosystems and facilitates the distribution, abundance, and functions of organisms. Coastal water quality is very important environmentally, economically, and socially. Coastal water quality is influenced by the surrounding land use including the amount and type of agricultural/industrial use and urbanization including port activities. These activities may reduce water quality by increase sedimentation rate, nutrients, trace metals, and hydrocarbons. Ports facilities are highly concentrated industrial areas near water that contain a variety of activities including container terminals, boat repair shops, and industries related to the transportation of goods.

Ports and harbors are characterized by very several and complex operations, especially if compared with other logistic nodes. This make them an important source of pollution mainly when ports are localized very close to urban areas. Particularly, noise pollution analysis is complicated due to the presence in the same area of several types of sound sources with different characteristics from each other. Noise from ports areas, in fact, come not only from ferries and ships and trade operations (engines and ventilation systems, embarking-disembarking actions) but also from industrial and shipyards activities (repair shipyards, noise from operations on hulls in dry docks) as well auxiliary services.